Sunday, December 20, 2015

I don't know about other quilters, but I know for me that the best complement that someone could give me is to use a quilt I've given them. And use it enough to actually wear it out and need a new one. Well, I've finally done that with what I believe was my first quilted project from way back when I was in High School.

Way back in the "dark ages", I made a quilted cover for a pillow that my maternal Grandmother had made for me. She had used scraps of the poly-double knits that she made her pants from for the pillow and stuffed it with shredded foam. That stuff wears like iron to say the least. The only problem is that it's all textured and isn't the most comfortable stuff to sleep on, and this pillow gets used nightly so that I can keep my head elevated.

When I made it all that was available was lighter weight poly-cotton prints. So that is what I used, along with polyester batting.

The cover lasted actually pretty
well up unto the last yr or so when it started falling apart. Guess I can't complain too much since it is over 40 yrs old now.

Replacing this cover (and putting more foam into the pillow again!) is one of my projects for the first part of the coming year. I haven't decided what pattern or colors to use for the cover. And might go digging through my stash of unused blocks to see what is in there that might work for the cover. Or who knows I might decide to go digging thru the stash to see what takes my fancy. =)

At any rate, how far do you let your quilted projects go before deciding that they need to be repaired are gotten rid of?

Love having time to actually sew and quilt with this job and feeling good enough to do so as well! Both have been in short supply the last few years for me.

I finished off three more mug rugs / snack mats over the weekend to use as Christmas gifts. All the gifts I needed to make. Yeah - no last minute sewing for me this year. Something that hasn't happened in several years. Just a couple of gift cards to buy once I get to where they are sold this week and I'm done with with getting gifts together. Woohoo...... Gotta love being prepared for a change.

Two of this set of mug rugs started with sections of pre-printed panels made by Block Party Studios that I've had for years. Had the best of intentions to use them when I bought them, but just now finally getting around to actually doing something with at least part of them. Both panels have a friendship theme and I know I'd thought about using them for postcards, but this works as well. Still have lots of sections in them to use so may be making more in the future.

Scraps were used to set the panel in the green snack mat into the left side log cabin block. Everything else in the mats were orphan blocks. Nope, I'm not seeing much of a dent in my orphans yet.....lol. But at least a few of them are being used up.

The one with the hearts was an orphan block that someone sent me. I had to finish the stitching around two of the hearts. Loved the colors and like how it turned out in this. Backing and binding were from my scrap bins.

Boxes of t-shirts arrived this past week as well for the commissioned quilt that I have to get made the first of the year. Twas fun carrying the biggest box of shirts over the icy parking lots and up the stairs into my apartment - NOT! At least I'll have a box big enough to ship the quilt home in. =) This will be the first big project I start on when I get home from my Christmas travels.

Shirts are all for the Phily Flyers hockey team - I'm gonna be seeing bright orange and black in my sleep.....lol. Also on the books to go with the quilt are a possible / probable 5-6 pillows out of the extra shirts that he sent with the 70 for the double-sided quilt.

Lots of fun coming up for me with this project. Just thankful that I can work on the tables in my classroom at school since I don't have anywhere big enough to do the cutting, sewing, or quilting here at the apt.

Gratitudes:
1. A job that pays enough to allow me the time and health to sew and quilt.
2. Friends and family

Monday, December 14, 2015

What do UFO blocks, scraps and Christmas gifts have in common you ask - well my scraps and UFO blocks were a great place to start looking for starting points for some of the Christmas gifts that I needed to get made this weekend.

First up were two sweatshirts that needed to be embellished. Found the fabrics for both in my scrap fabrics. Gotta love being able to use up things like that.

Next up were three mug rugs / snack mats that I needed for gifts. All three that were completed came from my UFO block tote. The Butterfly block and the purple & light blue checkerboard ones were from UFO's that other people had given me at some point in the past. The green one started with leftover triangles from a project that I had done at some point in the past.

I added the machine embroidered words to all of them. Had to used sew-in interfacing for stabilizing because I couldn't find my stitch-n-tear. Worked ok, just had to cut away the extra.

Gratitudes:
1. The commissioned t-shirt quilt that is in the pipe for January.2. My trip home for Christmas is fast approaching - woohoo.

Friday, December 4, 2015

This week I managed to decide on the design for my block entry into the November block contest for Modern Quilts. Finished off the test block today and know what changes I want to make for it. So one more test block over the weekend and then I'll get the block for the contest made.

The Thanksgiving weekend was one where I made a bunch of progress - finished off several UFO's (well UFO blocks at any rate), got several Christmas gifts finished up. All total I finished off 3 pairs of flannel pJ pants.

2 sets of matching pillowcases, 2 mug rugs and 2 snack mats. The mug rugs and snack mats were made with UFO blocks. Mug Rugs were both for swaps that I was in this month.

Gratitudes:
1.Good friends here at school to work with
2. The chance to go home at Christmas for a short visit.

The Process Pledge

F2F Block Swap

Hands 2 Help

This is Me

I've been quilting and sewing for more than 45 years. I love to design quilts and quilt blocks, and for the life of me can't follow patterns if I had to. Give me a picture though of what is wanted and I can figure out how to make it without a problem. I always have more than one project going at a time and do a lot of donation work for Sunshine quilts and American Heroes.
I also do a commissioned quilting and sewing for others.